Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-08-22
A BOULEVARD
From the City to Santa
Monica.
A PRIVATE ENTERPRISE.
The Beginning of What Will
Ramify to All Parts of
the County.

The HERALD has had many pei
scheme in mind for the betterment OF
Los Angeles during the more than
dozen years in which she has chung
her banners on the outer walls
against all corners in her battle for the
peoples rights and comforts. OF all
these matters few have been cherished
nearer the journalistic heart than that
of making decent roads to all parts Of
the county as one of the best means
possible to draw trade and traffic to
the city. The pleasure as well as the
material interests of the people
was held fast in mind, and
as concomitant of this road
building there have been pointed
out the great and varied enjoyments
to come from thoroughfares whereon
horse can be driven at a speed rather
faster than snail's pace without
breaking the buggy springs, if not the
drivers neck. Foremost among these
excellent lines of progress was pointed
out the advisability, the aecessity OF
a boulevard from the city to the sea
coast; indeed, several such were
claimed as most conducive to the
prosperity of the city and the pleasure
of those who dwell within her gates.
Board after board of County Super
yisors has been elected, qualified
and seated since this agitation
was begun. These officials
in successive patches, have sat out
their terms, drawn their salaries, and
returned again to the selusion of
private life, or the busy scenes OF real
estate speculation, and each batch has
left the roads in the main as they were
when the diligent officials took their
seats.
With these facts in mind discour-
aged press forsook the political gods
of younger days, and proceeded to
pour out its literary libations at the
shrines of private enterprise which
might prove more propitious to the
scheme. 1t has been impressed on
the minds OF those in interest
by iteration and reiteration
that such an exploit would so greatly
enhance the value OF the property
along the line that the value OF the
land used by the road and the cost of
its construction would return to the
Golfers of the exploiters a hundred
fold over and over again.
Well, the gods of material progress
are attentive to these prayers more
than were those of either political
party in the past. The following pc
tition is about to be presented to the
Board of Supervisors.
"T'ohe Honorable, the Board Of Superri-
sors Of Los angeles county, Cal.
The undersigned citizens and tax
PAYERS of this county, hereby petition
your honorable body to take such ac-
ton as may be necessary for the inn
mediate widening and improving of
the road known as the extension OF
West Washington street, from the
western boundary of the city OF Los
Angeles to the eastern boundary OF the
city of Santa Monica.
We respectfully submit that this
road is now in condition to be al
most dangerous, and that the safety,
comfort and convenience of the thou
sands OF people who drive over it, and
the interests of the entire county de-
mand its immediate improvement"
This is meeting with signatures on
all hands. 1t should be signed by
every person to whom it is presented,
and those not importuned to sign
should look up one OF the lists and
sign it at once There is one at the
HERALD office. Come in and put your
hand and seal to it forthwith.
More than this, the property hold
ers along the route have come to see
clearly the good to accrue to them in
the enterprise, and they are freely
dedicating 100-foot strip OF land all
the way along for the use of the bou-
levard. How wise this action! What
a beautiful feature of the landscape
in that part of the valley will
this grand drive be! 1t
will be road indeed, and not mar
row backwoods lane. 1t will lie
along level strip of country, free
from hills of any magnitude or deep
depressions. 1t will skirt the mesa in
such a way as to afford the finest view
imaginable of the plain below, the
sea beyond and the grandeur OF the
mountain panorama all around. Thei e
will be beautiful trees to align the
drive from the city to the sea
and walks, for the pedestrian to
walk abroad and recreate"
Himself, while, as the Hindu says, he
"eats the air" from the broad expanse
of old ocean, fresh with 10000 miles
of travel over his bosom and laden
with life-giving ozone from that pure
contact with the undefled sea.
The effect will be, as the HERALD
has more than once before pointed
out, that each acre OF the
land along this boulevard will be
at once sought for as the best building
location in the country. Villa homes,
elegant, beautiful, shrines of refined
taste, bedecked with all the myriad
flowers of the semi-tropics will spring
up as if by the magic wand of some
queen of fairies.
This is no fancy sketch. 1t is the
sober truth, as the building of the
grand drive will prove. Let it be
done-done at once, and
done well. Let it be broad
we'll made, smooth and hard; and let
it be watered along its entire length
morning, noon and night. All that is
needed is to get one such stretch Of
road, if it is only ten miles long. All
the rest will follow. Many OF us have
lived so long on the border that we
have forgotten what a good piece OF
road is, or how essential it
is to the well-being of civilized man.
Why, the history of roads is the
history of civilization. They 60 hand
in hand. The savage is literally moth
ing but back-woods man, a dweller
i'm the forest. That is the meaning OF
the word. Let us but revive the lat
ent springs of memory, and travel
once such a road as some of us drove
on in days of yore. There will arise